


is it supposed to be this hot all summer long?

by flow3rs



Series: you were mine for the summer (now we know its nearly over) [1]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Childhood Memories, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Ice Cream Parlors, Lifeguards, M/M, Sad Ricky Bowen (HSMTMTS), Sad and Happy, Small Towns, Summer Love, Summer Vacation, and this is what happens, you go to the beach once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flow3rs/pseuds/flow3rs
Summary: ricky works at the local ice cream shop and ej lifeguards at the beach across the street every summer. they hate each other. until they don’t.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: you were mine for the summer (now we know its nearly over) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890310
Comments: 24
Kudos: 68





	is it supposed to be this hot all summer long?

**Author's Note:**

> anyway i went to cape may like last week and it was just so...inspiring so. here this is.
> 
> this fic to the sky high au: sorry i cant be her...😔
> 
> title from 'malibu' by miley cyrus

“How the fuck do we work at an ice cream shop where the freezer malfunctions every 2 days?”

Gina didn’t look up from where she was flipping the pages of her magazine, blowing a bubble with the gum in her mouth. “That’s definitely a question you should be asking your dad. Considering he owns this place.”

“Mike is a cheap bitch,” Ricky complained, wiping the sweat off his brow as he continued playing around with the freezer settings.

“You said it, not me...” Gina mumbled, leaning back in her chair.

Ricky used to admire his father for owning The Inside Scoop, Cape May’s favorite ice cream shop. That was until Ricky turned 14 and his dad forced him to  _ work _ at said ice cream shop. Which in turn meant, that Ricky was forced to wear a  _ fucking _ newsboy costume: tan tweed shorts, white button down, suspenders, and of course, a stupid fucking _ hat _ . The day he wore that costume for the first time, he considered running away from home ( _ “C’mon, Rick! The outfit fits the theme of the shop!” _ his father had tried to convince).

The job only became bearable when Gina started working there with him. (If bearable meant getting another person to help carry in the 200 lb inventory from the trucks instead of having to do it himself, or bumping heads as they bent to mess around with the freezer buttons behind the counter, or having to deal with bratty little girls who always brought one too little crumpled up one dollar bills as a form of payment. Then yeah,  _ sure _ , it was bearable.)

He’d lived in Cape May his whole life; born and raised and hated every second of it. A tourist trap full of Trump flags, white Jeeps parked down the shore, and pretentious family vacation homes that housed Rich White Kids from Central Jersey (if that even exists…). It was dead in the winter except for the week of Christmas, hustling and bustling with crowds during the summer, and too small and too quiet and too suffocating during the school year.

For Ricky, it was suffocating all year round.

Cape May, New Jersey: second best beach in the whole country, ninth best in the whole world...number one on the list of Places Ricky Would Rather Die Than Stay In.

But if he wanted to get out, he’d have to work for it, and even if his dad  _ did _ own The Inside Scoop...he still paid Ricky minimum wage ( _ “You have to know how it feels to rise up from nothing, just like everyone else!”  _ he had told Ricky). That was fine. Ricky grew a backbone from the three years he had worked there so far. Shitty tourists, angry old locals, and flirtatious prepubescent girls does that to a person.

Cape May did have some perks, however. Gina, of course, who moved here from upstate New York and soon became one his closest friends ( _ “I’ve never seen such a shitty town. It’s pretty on the outside but ugly on the inside. The locals here are a fucking disaster. At least in Syracuse everyone looked shitty on the outside, too.” _ )

The town was small, so he could skateboard or bike or walk or run anywhere he wanted. He’s hungry? Hot Dog Tommy’s is a five minute bike ride away. Bored? There’s about four arcades spanning the length of the boardwalk. Wanna run away from it all? Just turn the corner and the beach is right there.

The beach. If there was one thing Ricky loved about Cape May, it was the beach. 

Not in the height of summer, when the miles of sand would be covered with crowds from all over the country. Not with the boogie boarding kids pretending they didn’t just pee in the water while almost drowning every five minutes. Not with the pretentious teen lifeguards who only stayed in Cape May for the summer and would disappear as soon as September hit.

The real beach. Midnight, soft sand, low tides, soft breeze and the moonlight. Five AM, an orange tint, calm waves, and the hint of the sun. The middle of March, completely empty, grey clouds, and a haze of fog over the water. Laying in the sand close to the crashing waves with his eyes closed, sprinkles of salt water spraying over his face as he thought too hard about it all.

An escape. From the ringing in his ears as his mom called from Chicago to ask him how he was doing as if she cared. From the monotonous routine of everyday life at the shop; Hellos and Good Mornings and How Can I Help Yous and Hi My Name Is Ricky I’ll Be Taking Your Order Today. From watching his dad looking at the bills and tax papers over the kitchen table, grumbling about money and time and just give a week and I’ll be able to pay—

Even when life was up and down and turned on its side; shaken and stirred and sipped till it was empty: the beach was always there. The beach was consistent; always the same murky water, the same soft sand between his toes, same horizon to look over. Maybe some days the horizon was pink or lavender or yellow orange or even grey. But it was always there.

There was one nuisance, however, that was unfortunately just as consistent (in the summer, at least). It wouldn’t be shitty Cape May without the shitty people. More specifically, though, one shitty person.

The bell of the shop rang as Ricky washed his hands in the sink behind the counter, back turned to the entrance as he yelled out an upbeat, “I’ll be right with you!”

Gina usually handled the cash register and customer service aspect of The Inside Scoop because Ricky got annoyed easily and would have to bite his tongue to keep from snapping at guests. (He once got into a screaming match with an 8 year old who insisted he get a refund for his ice cream cone, despite the fact that there was a gaping hole where he had taken a bite out of it. He made the kid cry and felt no remorse for it, so after that Gina designated him to scooping duties.) 

But unfortunately, Gina, with her bubbly voice and bright smile that could charm guests to buy anything on the menu, was in the bathroom and had yet to return. Which left Ricky to deal with whatever customer had walked through the door.

He turned, plastering the happiest grin on his face (which looked more akin to the Joker) and walked up to the cash register while patting his hands dry on his tweed shorts when he looked up and his face fell into the most unimpressed expression you could possibly imagine.

“You don’t look very happy to see me, Newsie.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t be coming back this summer, Caswell.”

Ricky stared into the tantalizing green eyes of the boy in front of him; smirk that seemed permanently plastered on his face giving way to the perfect set of white shark teeth inside his mouth. Those eyes and that smirk and those teeth belonged none other than EJ Caswell, your typical, stuck up rich kid from Princeton (actually from the neighboring town of Montgomery, but Princeton sounded more pretentious) whose typical, stuck up rich family owned a Victorian vacation home by the beach and who loved to  _ insist  _ he was a local of Cape May despite the fact that he only lived there two months out of the year.

He also happened to be the biggest pain in the butt for Ricky from the tender age of eight when both boys grabbed the last Spiderman boogie board at Ron Jon Surf Shop. They pulled it back and forth between them and EJ told Ricky that because he was taller, it was his and Ricky told EJ that he should have it so that he could match his Spiderman flip flops and then EJ pushed him down and called him a baby and argued that because he was a big kid (by seven months) that he should have it. Ricky sobbed on the ground until his mom carried him into her arms and EJ almost felt bad until his own mom came over and asked if he wanted the boogie board and he grinned and said Yes.

They hated each other ever since.

It especially didn’t help that EJ started lifeguarding at the beach across the street from the shop at the same time Ricky started working behind the counter. The first time EJ walked into The Inside Scoop and saw Ricky behind the counter, his eyes lit up in mischief and Ricky had to stop himself from screaming as EJ got a sample of all 45 flavors on a little spoon, pretended to think, then left without ordering anything. Ricky hated him.

The worst part of it for Ricky, however, was that the annoying little boy at Ron Jon Surf Shop had grown up to become an annoyingly attractive, golden tanned, 6 foot tall, Adonis Greek god.

So as they stared each other down in the tiny little 1930s newsstand themed ice cream shop, Ricky had to force his eyes to remain straight ahead instead of drifting down to the sun kissed chest, shiny with tanning lotion, and the little happy trail leading to the two sizes too small red lifeguard shorts that EJ was wearing.

“Can I interest you in today’s special: a scoop of The Pistachio Post and The Tiramisu Times topped with Saturday Morning Sprinkles and The New York Post Nuts?” Ricky recited with a blank expression and monotonous voice.

EJ scoffed as he took a seat at the bar in front of the counter, eyeing the menu even though he already knew what he was going to order. He got the same thing everytime.

“I’d also like to mention that at the Inside Scoop we have a ‘no shoes, no shirt, no service’ policy and it seems like you fit into the ‘no shirt’ aspect of that statement. So if you’d like to order, I’m going to have to ask you to put a shirt on or leave,” Ricky pestered, pretending not to look the older boy up and down.

EJ rolled his eyes but snatched a loose, white tank top out of his backpack and begrudgingly put it on. Ricky tore his eyes away from the action when he realized he was staring at the way EJ’s ab muscles moved.

He adjusted the backwards red baseball hat on his head and smirked at Ricky, “Don’t act like you didn’t like the view, Newsie.”

“Are you going to order or not? Because if you’re not, that’s another reason for you to leave.”

“Geez, no need to get your little suspenders in a twist,” EJ mumbled before leaning closer to Ricky over the counter. “By the way, are those new shorts? They look tighter than usual.”

Ricky blushed with wide eyes before violently grabbing the scoop and a waffle cone, avoiding eye contact as he seethed, “Do you want the usual or not?!?”

“Yeah, yeah, give it here.”

Gina, of course, chose this moment to come back from the bathroom, taking her place back behind the counter as her face lit up when she noticed EJ.

“Welcome back to Cape May, Caswell!” she said, crossing her arms with a smirk. “Didn’t think you’d be back since you went off to college.”

They dapped each other up as he tried to suppress a smile and shrugged, “If I didn’t come back then who would bully little ol’ Newsie back there?”

“Me, probably,” Gina joked.

Ricky didn’t say anything as he aggressively held out EJ’s order: one scoop of Cookie Dough Chronicle and another of The Daily Smore, topped with Extra! Extra! Oreo Crumbles and Paperboy Peanuts.

“ _ Thaaaaanks _ , Ricky,” EJ drawled with an annoying smile as he took the ice cream from Ricky’s hand and slid his money across the counter.

“Why do you hate me?” Ricky asked monotonously as he shook his head.

“I don’t hate you, I just think you look cute when you’re annoyed,” the lifeguard stated nonchalantly before yelling over his shoulder as he walked out of the shop. “I’ll see you guys soon! Probably tomorrow if you wear those shorts again, Newsie! Bye Gina!”

The glass door closed behind him with a ding of the bell and Ricky was left mumbling under his breath, jaw clenched as he ripped the gloves off his hands and threw them aggressively in the trash bin.

“ _ So fucking annoying literally makes living here harder than it already is, why does he have to make comments like that, why does he have to walk in here shirtless, like Jesus Christ put a fucking shirt on, asshole, I hate him I hate him I hate him— _ “

“Geez Louise, just admit you’re in love with him already and end all our misery,” Gina groaned, rolling her as she leaned against the counter.

Ricky’s head snapped to her instantly, “ _ Excuse me _ ??”

“I said what I said and you heard me, love.”

“I am  _ not _ in love with him!”

“Then what was all that flirting, then. Hmm?” she prompted, pointing between him and the door EJ just exited through.

Ricky turned his back to her, blushing as he began organizing the different types of cones. “We were not flirting, we were just...bantering.”

“He called you cute.”

“I am cute.”

“He said he’d come back tomorrow if you wore  _ those shorts. _ ”

“Okay, and?”

“He noticed you looking him up and down and said ‘ _ you like the view _ ’?”

“Jesus, how long were you listening to our conversation!?”

Gina just laughed as he threw rainbow sprinkles at her, getting up instantly to grab a bottle of chocolate syrup and squirt it in his direction. They laughed so hard that they didn’t care about how hard it would be to get the sticky syrup stains out their tweed shorts, didn’t care that they would have to sweep up all of the sprinkles that landed on the floor, didn’t care that they were probably wasting money on precious inventory by getting into a mini food fight.

Right now, it was just Gina and Ricky and the orange horizon shining through the glass windows, the cheesy paperboy hats falling to the floor, and the consistent crashing of the salty waves from the beach across the street.

Maybe Cape May wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> can u tell i wanted scoops ahoy steve harrington and lifeguard billy hargrove to be a thing...
> 
> lol but anyway hope you all enjoy this! its gonna be short series abt summer love just to close off the last of summer that we have left :-)
> 
> hope yall are staying safe and being sexy at a socially acceptable distance xx


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